I am giving some thought to driving down to watch a portion of the Tour of California bicycle race in May. I figured I might combine that with a little paddling and camping. My idea is to watch one of the stages around San Francisco like the one that goes to Santa Cruz or the one that starts in San Jose. I would prefer to find a place that isn't packed with 30,000 people so that might leave the Santa Cruz stage out. Have any Paddlewisers watched any of the stages before? I'm wondering how they close the roads and when you'd have to be in place in order to watch the group pedal by. I'm aware of the fact that you'd wait hours for 5 minutes of action (not including the antics of the crowd). The stage leading out of San Jose has a serious climb right off the bat and finding myself a spot on that climb would be nice. Any ideas? Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Craig Jungers wrote: > I am giving some thought to driving down to watch a portion of the Tour of > California bicycle race in May. ... > I'm aware of the fact that you'd wait hours for 5 > minutes of action (not including the antics of the crowd). The stage leading > out of San Jose has a serious climb right off the bat and finding myself a > spot on that climb would be nice. I'm pretty familiar with the roads for the first part of the San Jose to Modesto Stage. The Sierra Rd to Calaveras Rd section is a rural, steep and twisty road that I would expect not to attract much of a crowd. The Mines Rd section is also very rural and quite scenic. I've take the road over the top of Mt. Hamilton a few times where it turns into Mines Rd at the summit. It's real easy to forget that there is a large metropolis just over the hill while traveling that road. I've seen the turn off to Patterson Rd but never took it. I used to live in Pleasanton, the nearest town to Livermore and although Livermore is the biggest town on the stage once it leaves San Jose it's hardly what one would describe as a "city" and I wouldn't expect that you'd see big crowds even if you were within the Livermore town limits. Except for the start and ending cities most of this route is on infrequently traveled rural roads. For the SF to Santa Cruz route there are many small towns along Hwy 1 and the climbs on Tunitas, Bonny Doon, and La Honda are very scenic. A base camp in Half Moon Bay would provide a good launch point for watching the race and a good area to paddle as well. -- John Fereira Cornell University Twitter: _at_john_fereira Google Wave: fereira_at_googlewave.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Thanks for the responses. Several people suggested that Santa Cruz would be a good spot to combine paddling and watching the race... and it's a finish too. I'll have the 21-foot Princess (a 1970 Streamline trailer) with me so I'll be looking for a reasonable place to set up for a couple of days. Any suggestions in the Santa Cruz area? Too bad the time trial isn't in Solvag again. That would be perfect. I'd love to ride on the course but my left knee no longer allows me to ride a bicycle. It's a shame as I have an old Peugeot PX10 that I rode around Europe in the 1970s that would be fun to ride on a race course again. So if anyone has some ideas about a camp spot - I prefer something with electrical but since I have solar panels it's not absolutely necessary. Just easier with the microwave. LOL Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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